Dad fought fire. He was chief of our small, rural volunteer fire department for a number of years and had some limited experience on summer wildfires. Watching and learning about fire is a thing in our family.

The Tubbs Fire affected my cousin directly. I lived in Paradise many years ago. Both places our family had lived in burned in the Camp Fire, along with the town we knew. The Almeda Fire started right next to my co-worker’s house. Rogue Valley smoke directly impacts my family’s health and quality of life.

All this is to say that issues around fire - especially in N. California and S. Oregon - matter to me, but I have no direct experience with firefighting in any capacity.